Beetlejuice: An Added Canid Ally
by KatieTheWolfdog
Summary: In this tale, we have my fursona self, joining the duo, Beetlejuice and Lydia of the cartoon series with breaking fourth walls, puns, and all insane aspects of the series. Lydia's older and with the addition of Katie, her and BJ are soon to deal with the good, bad, and ugly of their future. What'll happen? Read to find out, if you will. BJxLyds pairing. Rated M for later chapters.
1. Prologue

~Well, I return to all with a new story and far better skills than I had years ago. Anyway, let's get things clear before we get on with this little tale. In this, I will have myself inserted for the addition of my fursona self made the idea come to mind that of course will be this lovely fanfic and I will be presented in the third person just for the sake of the story's feeling to be better off. That being said, I would also like to make the point that a nostalgia kick is what brought the urge about to even come up with a story line for this. Please, bare with my insanity. Anywho, enough of this author's chatting. Let's carry on.~

Disclaimer: I take no ownership of the creation known as Beetlejuice and its characters. All rights go to Tim Burton for the amazing creation.

_Prologue_

Bright skies adorn the day as birds are chirping away and people of the little town carry on here and there with their own lives. After all, not much is expected of the Peaceful Pines community. At least, that's what most citizens would think of this place, but unfortunately for them, they have yet to realize the hidden insanity within a particular area where a little, pleasant house sits up on a hill. At first glance, it appears normal, nothing out of the ordinary or anything. Just a simple house. However, as said, there's hidden insanity here that only a select few know of and whereas, another newcomer is about to discover the full extent of, opposed to what is already known.

Off a small distance from the aforementioned house, came the sound of rustling and what would sound like metallic tags jingling. Perhaps, just another lost canine as the cause of the general noise making, a canine in which had been acting quite strangely as it or more accurately, she made herself visible from the frustrating shrub she was and had been hidden in. Said animal crept slowly toward the house, looking as if to be in thought while doing so and sniffing the air when she got close enough. The other thing that made this so called dog all the more odd is the fact that she was quite big in size. Almost near the size of a wolf or at least inbetween a usual large dog breed and a wolf. She was colored with a solid light brown with markings of a common brown or possibly even darker brown. Moving up the steps toward the porch, the canine or in this case, wolfdog sniffed about even more and soon lifted her ears up to the sound of footsteps coming closer to the front door. The animal scrambled from side to side a bit as if in a panic of minimal proportions before coming to a quick halt and sitting on her hindquarters, playing the typical lost dog card as the door was soon opened by a woman with red hair.

The woman herself blankly stared for moment at the rather big canine in front of her. A big creepy, yet rather cheesy grin soon grew upon her face as her eyes bulged in what appeared to be utter excitement too. Within a few seconds, a high pitch squeal was emitted from the woman as she quickly grabbed the big canine in her arms, squeezing quite tightly. The animal herself, however, was gasping a little for air in the events of the woman's squeezing and twinging an eye at the squealing too. "Oh, what a precious, cute, adorable, pudgy, fluffy, big doggy woggy. I simply love you to bits and must bring you inside." The woman proclaimed in girly glee, too much girly for the wolfdog's comfort as she was brought into the home and practically dragged into a decent sized den with a large bookcase to the side, next to a loveseat in front of a window. On the said loveseat, sat a man with blonde hair, trembling a bit as if having a hard time being calm and cool. "Charles, look what I found out on our doorstep." The woman chimed to the man, obviously deemed Charles. The man looked up right away and soon began sneezing right away, trying to speak inbetween. "D-Delia, AHCHOO, why do you have, AHCHOO, that dog in here?" The woman known as Delia simply giggled and replied with. "Oh, Charles, you know how much I love dogs and you know what happened with the last dog I was wanting to keep."

The wolfdog in Delia's arms seemed to hold an intrigued look on her face at the mention of there being a prior dog, one that she seemed recall as if having heard of the incident from elsewhere. Charles sighed in response to Delia whom was made obvious as his wife. He continued sneezing as he stood, having no intent of saying another word in discussion on the now acclaimed new dog as he made haste to leave the den. Delia then chose this time to set the big wolfdog down upon the floor as she said in a cutesy tone. "Now, you behave my new doggy woggy and I'll come back soon with some new items for you. Good thing that you have a collar already too." She bent down a moment to read off the tag, before continuing. "Katie, hmm, that's your name, I see. But there's not an address or any other information on there. Though, instead there is this little teal colored jewel attached. Quite a intriguing little doggy woggy you are." She giggled like a little school girl as she stood straight up again and headed back the way she came. Only stopping briefly before she completely left to say. "My daughter will just love you too. If you wish to find her yourself, doggy, then you'll find her upstairs in her room." With that, Delia then left to go to the pet store as could be indicated from what she said prior.

Now, since the canine was finally alone again, Katie made her focus to investigate a bit before taking an interest in meeting the woman's daughter. She took several minutes to get through nearly the entire house, looking around and sniffing too. She had took notice of a black cat in the home while wandering about. Said feline, gave a terrified look to her, giving sign that it didn't enjoy the last dog that Delia claimed to have before. Katie tilted head her in confusion to the cat and gave a message through her expression as if to say, 'No need for fearing, I won't harm you.' This little message itself made the cat relax as he soon took his own leave from her. She shook her head a little as if amused and then made way to explore the upstairs, intending to meet the daughter while she was up there too. Another few minutes passed as the upstairs was now explored, aside from the room of Delia's daughter. The thoroughly interested wolfdog was now in what would appear as thought from her face as she stood in front of the slightly open bedroom door to the daughter's room, moving cautiously to peak in briefly before nudging it slowly to open. Carefully, she entered the room whist moving her sights and head upward to properly notice a girl of maybe fifteen or sixteen, staring into a small vanity to the side. With a few moments of the canine's staring, the girl turned to look in her direction and seemed to just look a tad surprised at the fact there was a large wolfdog in her bedroom or even in her home in general. One thing was for sure about this particular moment though and that being the fact that the insanity was going to maybe get a little more, well, insane for this household's day.


	2. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1_

The young girl just stood for a moment longer in silence as she eyed at the wolfdog in front of her. The canine returned the gaze of her own as she tilted her head slightly in attempt to pull off the confused puppy look. Delia's daughter then took a couple steps closer, kneeling before the big wolfdog as she spoke. "Looks like mother got excited over finding you outside. I could hear her squealing shrieks from up here. Almost gave me a fright to be honest." She gave a soft smile before continuing. "Well, I guess since you're here. You'll be stuck for awhile." She chuckled a little as if to remember something that made her place a hand lightly upon her mouth. Katie just blinked at the girl, still holding the confused look for a brief second before giving a canid equivalent of a smile herself. The young girl then acquired a look of uncertainty, seeming to realize a thought in her head. "There's just someone who may not be so welcoming of you." She shook her head in attempt to shake away the thought, adding. "Anyway, my name is Lydia Deetz and I'm sure we'll get along fine." Her smile had returned to its place upon her face as she moved to look closely at the tag upon the canine's collar, much like her mother had done previously. "And of course, you are Katie. Hm, rather strange to name a dog that, but it's your name, right?" Lydia said as if to joke light heartedly at the new furry companion.

Katie only panted calmly in response as she swayed her tail slowly from left to right, looking quite content and delighted even at the light joking. Lydia laughed with what seemed to be joy as she moved to pat the wolfdog upon the head, between her ears. "You know, it's odd to say, but you seem to understand what I say." She said with a snicker as she smiled pleasantly at the animal. Katie let out a couple barks in reply as she nodded her head. Lydia raised a brow to this as she saw the wolfdog nod at her. "Deadly-vu, you do understand!" She exclaimed in what was intrigued fascination. "It's quite amazing to have a dog that understands me in this manner." She giggled, continuing. "Almost as if you were a human in canine clothing." Katie kind of looked to the side a bit, possibly contemplating an answer. The canine looked as though she were about to open her own mouth to speak, but was interrupted by another voice that sounded as if it were in the room with her and Lydia. "Hey Lyds, what's with big the ball of fluff out on your carpet? Shouldn't that be kept under your bed, pfffft?" The wolfdog jumped a bit at hearing this new voice as she looked every which way to determine where it came from and who it had belonged to. Only to soon spot the upper torso of a man in the vanity mirror, wearing a suit of white with black stripes and black tie with a magenta undershirt. His appearance certainly was not something to be found in the usual sort of modeling magazine, but it also wasn't half bad either.

Lydia gave her head another shake as she turned her direction and attention to said mirror. "Beej, now, you know that this isn't some large dust bunny." She couldn't help, but giggle even more at the man's questions. "I know, babes, but you know how I can't resist sometimes. You know what I mean?" The man said with a crooked grin of green teeth as he seemed to poof out of the mirror and hover over the young girl. "So, Lyds, what's really with the dog? You know dogs always tend to put a thorn in my side." He added. Along with in cue of what was said, a comically large thorn appeared in the man's side, which caused him to cackle a bit like a maniac. Lydia let out a laugh this time at the man's antics as she replied. "Beetlejuice, this is my new family pet. At least that's what I can assume since mom went nuts over her. The dog's name is Katie." Said canine only looked at the man known as Beetlejuice with a rather unsure and intrigued look. She raised a brow of her own to him as if in slight disbelief. "Hey Pooch, got any traveling flea circuses upon your back?" Beetlejuice asked with another cackle. Much like with the thorn bit, a literal flea circus or two ended up on Katie's back, causing her to let out a yelp as she began scratching and biting at herself. "Whoa, guess I caused a flea buffet." He added with a low chuckle at what the canine's reaction was.

"Beetlejuice!" Lydia shouted in a scolding manner as she gave him a rather stern glare. The man himself only sighed and pointed a finger at Katie, using some sort of energy to have the fleas be removed from the wolfdog's hide and body. "Sorry, babes. Guess I got a little carried away." Beetlejuice said in a not all that apologetic tone, giving another crooked smile as if to look innocent and amused at the same time. The canine, however, gave a rather annoyed low growl in his direction, baring her own set of fangs. "BJ, you really should watch who or what you mess with. You'll end up worse off one of the days, if you don't" Lydia scolded with a raised brow. "Are you kidding me, Lyds? What could be worse than death?" He paused for a moment as he shifted his eyes to and fro slightly, looking as though to address an audience. "Well, maybe sandworms could be or maybe even..." He gasped before finishing. "...a bath!" A look of fear came upon his face as he screamed, causing his head to spin rapidly before he grabbed it with his hands in a halt. "Whoa, almost lost my head for a second." He said lastly.

A sigh escaped the young girl as she shook of her previous emotion toward Beetlejuice, moving to speak again. "Anyway, Beej, you do remember our plans for today, right?" He then smiled and gave a nod. "Sure I do, babes. We were going to go see that new flick in the Neitherworld, weren't we?" Beetlejuice's mentioning of the Neitherworld brought about a surprise in the canine as her ears went straight up and her jaw seemed to comically drop for a moment. A thought soon crossed her mind. 'This is them? The two I've heard quite a lot about from eavesdroping, newspapers, and from the agency that sent me? It can't be. Can it?' Katie blinked a couple times, looking frozen in place. This eventually caught Lydia's attention as she looked to her new companion. "Hey, what's wrong?" She asked as she waved a hand in front of the wolfdog's eyes and face. Beetlejuice just rolled his eyes to the side a bit, smirking slightly as he chose this moment to make another joke. "Looks like she's a bit stiff there, Lyds." He cackled yet again as he descended sown to nudge the canine with his finger. This causing Katie to be stiff as a board as no movements were made when she was nudged by the man.

"Beej, that's certainly not funny." Lydia said in denial, holding back a snicker. Beetlejuice held a crooked grin as he chuckled, replying. "If you say so, babes." Within a couple seconds, Katie could move again, getting back up on all fours as she shook her entire body briefly. The wolfdog could not help, but let out a human sigh, which caught both the attention of Lydia and Beetlejuice as they looked rather shocked at what they heard. "Did, did you just sigh?" Lydia asked with a look a surprise on her face as she seemed to back away a little, bumping into Beetlejuice in the process. The canine in question just gave a sheepish expression as she let out an exhale and open her own mouth, intending to actually and literally speak. "Yeah, you did." She replied with a nervous laugh of her own. Her speaking, however, surprised Lydia more and made Beetlejuice actually want to say something this time. "Wait, you talk too?" Katie simply nodded and held her prior expression as she answered again in human speech. "Yes, I do, sir Beetlejuice. I believe I should properly introduce myself and give an explanation to, well, all this." The wolfdog laughed in slight embarrassment as she took a seat on her hindquarters, while Lydia and Beetlejuice took their own seats upon the bed in the room.

"That would be a great place to start for sure." Lydia said finally in a more relaxed manner once she and BJ were seated upon her bed. Katie let out a soft sigh as she looked at the two, holding a rather pleasant smile as she spoke. "Well, as my collar has proven to you, I'm Katie and as to refer to what you said earlier, I actually am a human in canine clothing. And yes, obviously very literal too." She laughed a little, continuing on. "You see, I'm what you'd call a special case human. Meaning, that I have some rather unique abilities or powers. I was assigned to come here by a rather exclusive agency. What this agency deals in is the living world, as well as, many other various worlds, including your own world, Beetlejuice. Anyway, I was assigned or to be more accurate, asked to go through some information on you two to see if there was anything that I could sense about your futures, so to speak. Allow me to tell you that I saw practically the good, bad, ugly for the both of you. The only problem with my sixth sense, if you care to call it that, is that I may be able to sense or even see these events, but I can not determine an exact time frame for when or which shall occur first. I hope this is making sense to you because I can't really explain all this any better than as I'm saying." Lydia seemed to nod as if she understood and got what the wolfdog had said. Beetlejuice, on the other hand, was looking a bit lost at sea and this became quite literal too like before as he said. "I feel as if I'm lost in the tides of the rueful sea."

Katie gave somewhat of a flat look as she shook her head. "Look, the point is that the agency that sent me here advised for me to be made an extra ally of sorts for the two of you based upon what I could sense and in being an honest hound, I must say that I accepted the task or job, if you will to be more aid for you two whenever the bad and ugly show their heads." She stated with a look of seriousness on her wolfdog face. "It's better to be safe than sorry, wouldn't you think?" She asked in addition. Lydia nodded once again as she answered. "I definitely would agree to it." She paused for a moment before asking. "But Katie, might I ask why you're not in your human form?" The canine chuckled a bit as she gave a smile and said. "Well, let's just say I prefer to be canid because it seems to be easier than being a human." Lydia could not help, but snicker at that answer too as she returned the smile to the wolfdog. Beetlejuice did not seem too keen about the whole idea of there being a dog running along with him and Lydia as he said. "Pffft, we don't need a mutt like you. I mean, I'm the ghost with the most and Lyds is a tough kid on her own." The wolfdog just sighed and responded with. "I'm well aware that you are 'the ghost with the most', but from what I had seen and sensed on your futures, you'll both be in more than you bargained for if left without my aid."

Beetlejuice took this as an insult as he gritted his crooked teeth a bit, groaning a little. Lydia took this moment to tug on his sleeve, which appeared to calm down the ghost or at least keep him in his place on the bed. Katie gave a mental sigh as another thought crossed her canid mind. 'Well, this certainly won't be easy, but it surely will be intriguingly fun, as well as, insane.' The three just seemed to carry on with conversing until the prior plans that had been mentioned earlier took place. The wolfdog chose to stay in the living world while the duo of BJ and Lydia went off on what could clearly be called a date. Although, there was a downside to being there and that was having to play the new dog to Lydia's rather 'excitable' mother. When Katie had heard that woman return home, she decided it best to hide under the bed instead of instantly run down to her mother. She let out a sigh of relief as she whispered to herself. "As I had thought, definitely not going to be easy, but surely fun and insane." Delia's rather excited voice soon echoed from downstairs. "Where's my doggy woggy? I have some gifts for her!" The canine sighed once more and said lastly to herself while hiding. "Well, guess it'll be more insane than fun with that nut of a woman."


	3. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2_

Around the late evening of this rather insane day, the duo of Lydia and Beetlejuice had returned to the bedroom. Lydia was laughing a bit as she made an exclamation in regards of their plans. "I just can't get over that one scene. It was just in bad taste." Beetlejuice seemed to smirk a little himself as he remarked with. "Babes, we both know I'm the only one who should be giving the bad taste." He added a chuckle of his own after. Lydia giggled as she took in a good breath before turning to look around the room, soon wondering just where Katie had gone. Beetlejuice himself really didn't seem to care either way, but he did lift up a brow in what would be slight curiosity. "I wonder where she could have gotten too." Lydia paused for a moment and her eyes seemed to widen as her answer came to her mind. "Oh no, mom is probably the answer to this." She added. Beetlejuice himself seemed to hold a look of disgust at the memory of what Delia had done to him during his own dog fiasco. "Now, I almost feel bad for the mutt." Beetlejuice said in his own admittance, almost looking as if he were shivering at the previous memory in his mind.

Soon there was the sound of pawing and possibly clawing at the door. Lydia turned her head toward the door of her room as she moved to open it, finding the canine in question all poofed and fluffed up in a way that a Poodle would look. Turns out, Katie couldn't stay hidden for very long under the bed because Delia eventually came up to search there. In any case, the wolfdog did not look too pleased as she proceeded in, letting out a low and clearly annoyed growl. At the sight of her, the ghost himself began to cackle madly as he seemed to fall backwards, hovering slightly instead of hitting the floor as he held his rather round midsetion. The canine seemed to react by glaring daggers at him as she exhaled and began shaking her body from head to tail in attempt to rid the poofy makeover Delia had given her in their absence. "Hardy, har, har, veeerrrry funny, Beetlejuice." She stated rather sarcastically and irrated at the ghost's laughter as she finally got herself back to her normal wolfdog appearance. "I swear, that woman is really barking mad in the head." The canine added with a low sigh.

"Yeah, I know that she is. Mom can get rather carried away." Lydia agreed, nodding. Beetlejuice was still laughing and managed to speak inbetween his ridiculing laughter. "Ahahaha, carried away in comedy, ohohoho. She's not just insane, she's a basket case." In saying this, he turned into a big floating basket for a brief moment, much like with any other thing before. Katie just shook her head again, but couldn't really disagree with the ghost. So, she nodded and said. "You can say that again, Beetlejuice." And as that was said, BJ soon repeated. "That again, Beetlejuice." The wolfdog seemed to do the equivalent of a facepalm by lifting a paw and setting it over her face, trying to hold in a slight snicker. Lydia, however, was giggling at the ghost with the most and holding a hand to her mouth lightly. Katie took a moment to clear her throat and readied herself to speak again, but unfortunately, she was cut off as Delia's voice had chimed and was proceeding upstairs. "Oh, doggy woggy, where did you goooo?" Both Beetlejuice and Katie seemed to jump in startlement in hearing Lydia's mother calling and approaching. BJ, himself, soon chose to disappear from visibility, only to appear shrunken and hidden upon the wolfdog, herself. This in itself, caused the wolfdog's skin to crawl a bit in itching as she twitched, resisting to scratch as she moved to hide behind Lydia and lowered her ears to the sides.

Within moments, Delia came into the room with a big excited smile as she spotted the canine behind her daughter. "Oh, there you are and I see you've met my little Lydia." She said with a cheery tone, which was honestly annoying to the wolfdog's ears. Delia moved as if she were about to drag said animal by the collar, causing the hidden ghost on her shoulders to make a high pitched 'eep' noise in turn. "Now, why don't you come with me and-" She was soon cut off as Lydia spoke up. "Mom, I think that Katie should stay in my room. I mean, I've kind of gotten attached to her rather quickly and I kind of feel alone in here at night since Percy is always in yours and Dad's bedroom at night." She added a slight laugh, hoping that Delia would believe her. The woman, herself, lifted a brow as she straightened back up and gave a gentle smile in return to her daughter. "Well, alright, dear, I guess you can keep her in here with you then. I'll just have to spend time with the doggy woggy when I'm free to." She replied, almost adding a small frown at the last bit as she gave Katie a pet on the head. "Well, goodnight, dear." She added lastly before taking her leave from the room, shutting the door behind her.

Beetlejuice and Katie both sighed in relief as the woman left. The ghost, himself, soon reappeared beside Lydia, hovering with his legs bent at the knees. "She really is nuts." He stated quite blatantly as he briefly morphed into acorns to emphasize the point on his comment. "I'll say." Lydia agreed as she let out her own sigh. The wolfdog looked to them both as she moved back to the front of the two, sitting on her hindquarters. "Now, before that interruption, I had to say something I forgot to mention to you two earlier. I need to make it a point that I mainly stay in the living world as a guard dog for Lydia because I have come to realize from what I've heard that you, Beetlejuice, aren't always so quick to the rescue. This being another reason I urge to be staying for awhile because with what's to come, that can't be happening. I hope you can at least agree to that. Also, I should mention that if need be, I can be an asset in the Neitherworld just as well." She then turned her look to Lydia directly as she continued. "I also hope that, that won't be too much of a problem." Lydia shook her head and replied with. "No, of course not." She looked to Beetlejuice. "You, Beej?" Beetlejuice seemed to hold a pout on his face as he gave a little 'hmmph' in response.

"Beetlejuice?" Lydia said in a near scolding tone in using his full name. Beetlejuice flinched as he then said in usual whiny tone. "Whaaaaaaaaat?" Lydia held her gaze on him, which equaled her voice tone as she tapped her foot lightly. "Is that going to be a problem for you?" She asked again, raising her brow at him. BJ only scoffed and seemed to cross his arms as he mumbled lowly. "Well?" Lydia pressed on. He soon sighed and finally gave an answer in a pouty tone of sorts. "Okay, okay, no, it's not a problem." Lydia couldn't help, but stifle a giggle at his response and tone. She gave him a smile and then said. "Good because I was being honest when I said I grew attached to her. I mean, how can anyone resist a nice looking wolfdog like this." She referred to Katie with her hands in saying this. Beetlejuice twitched at the word 'nice' as he moaned and tugged on his hair. "Eeeeyuck, you said the 'n' word, Lyds. You know I hate that word." This only caused the wolfdog to laugh as Lydia did the same. "Oh, Beej, I know." The young girl said with an amused smile as she snickered.

After a brief moment to let her own laugh die down, the canine let out a yawn as she lightly shook her head. "Well, I believe today's been a rather long and more than intriguing day. Wouldn't you think?" She asked with a small grin. Lydia nodded, seeming to yawn herself as she gave her agreement. "I would say that's an understatement, but still, I agree." Beetlejuice even seemed to give his own acknowledgement of agreement with his usual 'pfft' response. The wolfdog rolled her eyes slightly at the ghost's response, moving to speak once more. "Then it's settled that we all are in agreement. However, like with what was spoken on earlier, tomorrow and any day of the future could prove more stranger than the previous day." She paused for a moment before continuing. "Now, tomorrow, I think we should all try to get to know one another more. What I mean in that is that each needs one on one with myself and then we all can tie in together afterward. Sound fair?" She looked to the two with a raised brow. "Well, I do have to walk to school tomorrow. Guess, that's about a good a time as any for one on one with me." Lydia answered. Katie gave a nod to her as she replied. "Then that shall be good." She turned her attention to the hovering ghost, who seemed to be in a laid back pose. "And for you, ghost with the most? I take that I'll have to venture into your world while Lydia is in school?" She asked.

BJ just rolled his eyes and gave his quick, forced response. "Yeah, sure, I guess." Katie only gave a slight smirk to him as she said. "Good, then it's all set. I have the time with you, Lydia in the morning to school and you, ghost man afterward." She let out another yawn and added. "Now, I think it's time for all of us to get some shut eye, yes?" Beetlejuice stretched out his arms as he soon let out a yawn of his own and nodded to the suggestion. "I couldn't agree more. I need to catch the Z's." In that instant, the ghost seemed to turn into some sort of insect enthusiast as he was now holding a net and swinging it about to catch some floating letters, namely the one he mentioned. Only seconds later to revert back to his usual striped suit. Lydia rubbed at her eyes and could only mumble her agreement as she moved to lie on her bed, moving under the blankets and resting her head on her pillow. Katie looked to Beetlejuice and stated. "Guess I'll see you out." She couldn't help, but chuckle to herself lowly as she lifted a paw up in the direction of the vanity mirror. The ghost with the most just gave another eye roll and said nothing as he moved through the mirror to return to his own bedroom in the Neitherworld.

The canine took a moment herself to stretch a bit before moving to the light switch, turning it off to put the room in darkness. She tilted her head toward Lydia's bed, having a thought come to mind. 'Well, I can say one thing about the kid right off the bat and that is that she sure has a lot of patience to be around a ghost like Beetlejuice.' A sigh escaped the wolfdog as she moved to curl up on the floor at the foot of the bed. 'Guess, I will be in for more than I originally thought.' She added mentally as she rested her head on her large paws, eyes drifting shut as slumber took over the canine. A few hours went by in the night, until the time struck midnight and at said time, there seemed to be noise coming from downstairs. Almost like something or someone had opened or no, broken in through the kitchen door. This sound certainly alarmed the sleeping wolfdog as her eyes snapped open, head lifted up and ears perked up on alert. Her brows lowered as a soft growl escaped her throat, moving to get on her paws as she stood and made way toward the bed room door. She looked to the doorknob before jumping up to paw it around, eventually getting the door itself open to a crack. Katie nudged and pawed until she managed to get out of the room, shaking herself off briefly and then heading down the stairs carefully and quietly.

Within a minute or two, she had reached the kitchen's doorway and took note of the sounds beyond it, raising an ear up to listen. "Now, where could there be something of value in this dump?" Came the low whisper of a male intruder. Katie let out a low snort as she peaked in on the said crook. The man looked rather bulky in build, but not bulky enough to scare of the wolfdog. He had his back turned and didn't seem to even catch inkling of there being a big animal watching him sift through drawers. The canine, herself, took this chance to cautiously move into the kitchen as she slowly snuck up on the burglar. Once close enough behind him, she let out a rather aggressive and threatening growl. This, in turn, startled the intruder as he jumped around with a look of shock on his face. He could see a pair of glowing teal eyes staring him down and a nice set of sharp fangs bared in his direction. His expression was now turning into one of fright and intimidation as he tried to back away from the growling beast in front of him. "N-n-nice doggy. G-good doggy. Don't t-tear into the pl-pl-pleasant man." He stammered as he shivered and trembled. The mane was trying to find his way out at this point as he fumbled his hands behind him to search for a doorknob.

The canine gave a fierce and nasty bark toward the man in the response as she snapped at his waist's location. The intruder jumped and let out a high pitched squeal of terror, falling back on the floor and causing a loud thud. All this noise had awoken the Deetz pair upstairs as a nervous Charles and frightened Delia moved out from their bedroom, heading for the stairs to reach to kitchen. Both were surprised to find the new family pet, growling and now snarling at the burglar whom had been pressed up against the door frame. "Help! Somebody! Call off the dog! Pleeeaaassse!" He cried out in fear, sniveling on the floor and unable to move. Delia then exclaimed to her husband. "Charles, call the police!" Her nervous wreck of a husband quickly nodded and ran off to dial for them. At this moment, Lydia had come down to the sight, blinking in surprise of her own, but wasn't really as fear stricken as her parents were. Delia moved to pull Katie off and away from the intruder while the sounds of sirens echoed from outside the house. It was rather quick for the police to arrive, but in a place called Peaceful Pines, it's kind of something to expect in order for peace to be kept.

The burglar was screaming as the wolfdog kept up with her growling, snarling, and barking at him. An officer came him and within an instant, the man who was beyond terror, jumped into the cop's arms and pleaded. "Please, take me away. Do anything you must to get me away from that dog!" Lydia seemed to hold herself back from a snicker because the crying man who now learned his lesson about breaking in was just too amusing to not get a laugh out of. The office seemed to hold a 'what a baby' expression as he then made sure to fulfill what was pleaded, taking the big and sniveling man out to the patrol car. Minutes passed as the police had pulled out and left with the previous intruder. Delia soon held a rather large grin on her face as she squeezed Katie into a hug. "Charles, can you believe it? My doggy woggy just protected our lovely home from a burglar." The wolfdog, herself, just held a flat look that only Lydia paid mind to in lue of her mother's returning excitable attitude. Charles only gave a nervous laugh, as well as, a sneeze in replying. "Yes, ACHOO, I saw, dear." The canine squirmed in Delia's arms as making sign to be released, which the woman granted as she let go.

Katie quickly moved to be standing at Lydia's side as she stared warily at her mother. "Well, this has been enough for a late night event. So, let's all just get back to bed." Lydia chimed with a mock chuckle of her own. Her parents only nodded to the suggestion as they made their way to return to bed. Lydia merely sighed as she gave the wolfdog a pet on the head, smiling as she lead the canine along. "Way to impress my parents, Katie. Now, I know they'll be letting you stay for quite a long while." She then held a slight grin as she added. "You certainly made that intruder nearly piss himself." She snickered a bit softly as she and the canid companion returned to her bed room. The canine simply smiled back at the young girl as she thought to herself. 'Well, I have to protect what is part of my job, but I'm starting to believe that this will be seen more than just a job. I may even come to love this kid and her family.' Once back in the room, Lydia moved to lie back in bed and lightly patted the side, looking to Katie as she did. "Come on up here and sleep. It's better than the floor." Her smile still on her face as she spoke. The canine gave a nod and did as asked, moving to climb up into bed as she curled up at the edge of the bed. Lydia had done the same and had soon fallen back into her own slumber. 'Hell, I may even grow to love that obnoxious ghost too.' The wolfdog thought lastly as she chuckled lowly to herself before making her own return to world of slumber. This certainly had become the start of what could be called Katie's insane adventure.


	4. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3_

Morning soon came as the hours of the night had long gone, leading to the sound of the all familiar songbirds to chirp merrily. The sounds had caused a sleeping wolfdog to flick her ears slightly as she let out groggy, low groan. She lazily lifted her head up as she let out a yawn and stretched out her front legs, paws wriggling in doing so as the canine moved to open her eyes. 'It's another day. In fact, a day that is going to be the start of this endeavor.' She thought as she turned to look at the still sleeping Lydia. A smile came upon her face as she gently began to nusdge at the young girl with her paw. "Hey, time to awaken, child." Katie chimed softly in a motherly like tone, chuckling lowly. The young girl stirred a bit and mumbled under her breath as she started to sit up in bed, rubbing at her eyes as she too let out a yawn of her own. "I'm up, I promise." She said in a sleepy tone as she opened her own eyes, looking to the wolfdog on her bed as a smile came upon her face. After about a moment, Lydia began moving off the bed to proceed in getting ready for school. Katie did the same as she too hopped off the bed, but instead of staying in the bedroom, headed downstairs for what was hopefully going to be a decent breakfast.

The canid was soon greeted with that all too familiar shrill from the woman of the day prior. "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, there's my special doggy woggy." Delia moved to squeash and pinch at the wolfdog's pudgy cheeks, which only made the canine want to instantly scram from the situation as she darted her eyes around slightly. It was as if she were looking for help out of this elsewhere. 'Can anyone out there help me here?' Came the voice in her mind as it gave her thought. Delia held her cheesy, yet slightly creepy grin as she continued in that baby tone that anyone would normally use on an animal when talking to it. "Awww, you're such a fluffy wuffy doggy woggy. I bet you're hungry wungry." The woman cooed and chimed in giggles as she finally realesed the hold of Katie's face and cheeks, turning away for a moment to fetch whatever meal she was intending to serve to the canine. The wolfdog's face looked a tad irritated in that moment as she pawed at her cheeks in a rubbing sort of motion and mumbled in a low whisper to herself. "More like this canine's going to be sicky wicky from all the baby talky walky." Her tone was more than annoyed of course and mocking even as she had insultingly mimicked the woman chatter. She shook herself off, fluffing out her fur in doing so as she quickly put on a fake happy puppy face for Lydia's mother as she, herself, turned back to the canid with what appeared to be some questionable looking meal that she set down in front of Katie.

'What in the actual-' Her thought suddenly put to a halt as Lydia's father soon entered the kitchen with a sneeze or several to be more precise. He was trembling in nerves, which one would assume to be his usual manner. If the canine were to lift her ears to focus on him, then she surely would hear his usual line of. "Try to relax. Try to relax. ACHOO, ACHOO, ACHOO!" Charles managed to say with some more following sneezes. The canine gave a look of apology for the man and his sneezing. She legitimately felt bad that she was the cause of this poor, nervous man's nasal issue. 'Sorry, sir, but I'm afraid I can't make my fur hypoallergenic for your sake.' She lowered her ears slightly as she turned to look back at the previous meal set before her. 'Now, to tackle my previous thought. What is this and how do I eat? Or more importantly, could I really eat it?' The canid gave a hesitant gulp as she blinked a little, just staring at the dish of what she only hoped to be edible food. She cautiously descended her nose toward it as she took in the scent of the meal by inhaling a rather whiff. Surprising to her senses, it didn't smell too bad. It didn't smell amazing mind you, but its scent was at least tolerable enough. Her head lifted back up a bit as she looked toward Lydia's parents at the table and then briefly over to the cat from when she first entered the home, noticing the name on the feline's dish to have him known to be as Percy. The wolfdog let out a snort as she once again returned her focus uponher own dish. She gave a mental sigh as she thought. 'Well, here goes nothing.'

Within a second or two the canid began to nibble at the food. Luckily, the taste wasn't horrid, but more so at least decent. In the meal, she seemed to find beef and fowl of some kind mixed in with some other ingredients that were hard to justify as to what they were exactly, but nevertheless, it was safe and that was something to be glad about. The sound of footsteps could be heard coming down. Katie perked up her ears and head at this sound, knowing that it would be Lydia coming to join in and have her own breakfast. As the girl, herself, entered the kitchen, the wolfdog gave a delightful bark to put on the role of good pet dog, panting and wagging her tail slowly as it was lifted up straight. Lydia simply giggled as she joined in on the so called performance by rubbing Katie atop her head and between her big ears. "Good morning to you too, girl." She said with a joyful looking smile before moving to take her seat at the table. Delia took this moment to look to her daughter and start up the generic family conversation. "Lydia, I need you to watch over our new doggy woggy today after school. I'll be taking your father out to see if there's something to help with his sneezing." Her mother said with that same smile she typically held. The young girl nodded in response to her as she said. "Sure, mom, I'll be certain to watch her after school. I mean, how much trouble could she be? If there's any trouble to mention, it should be on those who break in." She chuckled a bit at that in remembering what had happened last night.

Delia snickered a little at that herself as she replied with. "That is very true, dear. I guess, she shouldn't be the one to worry about." Lydia simply smiled to her in return and felt a sudden nudge at her side, panting being heard as her eyes met with the wolfdog involved in the conversation. The young girl soon recalled what she was meant to ask in order for the one on one to occur with her and the said canine. "Oh, hey, mom, do you think it'd be okay if I had Katie walk with me to school and maybe come fetch me when I get out?" Her mother simply nodded, thinking nothing too strang of it as she answered. "I don't see why not. I mean, it'll be good for my doggy woggy to get her exercise." The canid, herself, twinged a bit at the baby talk, but dusted it off and simply let out a convincingly delighted bark as she raised her head to look over the table top. Delia just laughed and added. "Well, seems she's excited about the idea too." The wolfdog briefly rolled her eyes as if to acknowledge on the exercise idea. A few minutes passed as Lydia finished her morning meal and made quick to head out. "See you after school. Come on, girl!" She beckoned to her parents while calling for the canine companion to follow after her. "Bye dear!" Both Charles and Delia exclaimed in unison as they bid her a joyful goodbye while their daughter and new family dog vanished out the door.

The two of them walked a bit a way from the house before the planned conversation began. "Well, I must say, I'm quite surprise that the questionable breakfast I was given was not as terrifying as I had first thought." The wolfdog started off with a chuckle or two, focusing on Lydia. The girl return a look to the canine as she responded. "Yeah, mom's cooking is one of those hit and miss sort of things. You either end up with a land mine illness or a live another day relief." A laugh escaped her as she gave her agreement. "Ha, ha, I see, well, good thing I'll be keeping on my paws for that sort of thing." The canid paused for a moment before continuing. "So, to begin with this one on one session. Maybe we should start with the basic and general questions. As in, how long would you say you've known the 'ghost with the most'? Or what would you say it's like being around him personally?" Katie tilted her head slightly as she walked alongside Lydia, soon treading rather steadily through the town of Peaceful Pines. The young girl took a second to think as she look rather well in thought. "Well, I guess I would say I met him when I was about eleven and I'm sixteen now. So, that makes about five years or a little more over it month wise." She replied with a small smile as she turned back to watch where she was walking. "As far as what it's like, I can simply say that it's one fun and crazy rollercoaster ride with him. I mean, we've been into quite a few problems, but not so much that I could really complain about or say that I'd not want to be around Beej. Afterall, he's pretty much my best friend and mostly has been my main best friend to be completely honest about it."

The canine nodded in an understanding manner. "I guess, I can understand what you mean. I mean, with time, people or ghosts, or animals, or what have you can really become an easy attachment, if you catch my drift. However, I, myself, can't really say much about Beetlejuice, but I can say one thing and that is this, he certainly doesn't hold much of a ill nature. At least not toward you from what I have been able to observe briefly." The wolfdog gave a slight shrug before adding. "Although, I guess what I get off him can be thanked by a sixth sense, if you will. I mean, I am this special sort of human or canine as of the moment." She let out a brief snicker and continued. "That in itself is a rather handy thing to have as an ability of sorts. Really helps weed out those who are the good and those who are the bad to make it short and to the point." Lydia looked at her and gave a slightly wider smile, nodding. "Well, I can verify that you would be correct on that about him and agree that an ability or power like that is rather good to have." She said, holding her smile as the both of them drew closer to a school. Katie turned her attention to the aforementioned school and looked at the big sign out front that read 'Miss Shannon's School for Girls'. The canine seemed to be intrigued as she returned her gaze to Lydia and said. "Quite the school up ahead." The tone of her voice was that of pure interest and maybe a tad curiosity too. Young Lydia let out a sigh. "It's not exactly a cup of tea, but it is a decent school, I suppose." She replied.

The canid tilted her more once more at her response, but didn't seem to want to press on it as she just moved to give the kid's hand a lick. Lydia just giggled and smiled at her new companion, giving her a pet on the head. "Thanks for that." She said, graciously. "Hey, Lydia!" A new unfamiliar voice had beckoned as what would appear to be its owner coming up to greet Lydia. Katie went back into pet mode as she let out a surprised bark, panting a little as her tongue lolled out to the side. A tall and slender girl with long brown hair and buck teeth was now standing before them, as was a much shorter and more petite girl with red hair and glasses. "Lydia when did you get a dog?" The girl had asked in her awkward sounding voice. "Bertha, how can you be sure that's just an ordinary dog? It looks kind of wild to me." The small girl chimed in to the taller girl known as Bertha. "Oh, Prudence, don't be silly. I know a plain dog when I see one." She said with a smile to her friend and to Lydia, while asking again. "So, Lydia, when did you get this ball of fluffiness?" Lydia kind of got a bit nervous toward her excited friend, but managed to give an answer. "I got her yesterday. She was kind of just roaming around in the yard and well, mother kind of took her in." She put on the best smile she could muster to hide her nerves. "Awww, she's so cute and adorable." Bertha offered a hand to Katie, which she in return sniffed at and gave a hesitant lick as her tail swayed to and fro slightly. "What's her name?" She added.

Lydia laughed lightly as she answered. "Well, her name's not too unique, more common, but either way, her name is Katie." The canid, herself, gave a couple barks in a delightful tone as she panted all the more. The other girl known as Prudence, jumped a little at the wolfdog's barking as she said something that was quite obvious about said animal. "You know, I'd that you're dog is more of a wolf than a regular dog. She's so big and has a lot of features that a wolf does." She fidgetted with her glasses while saying this as she seemed to tremble ever so slightly. Katie looked to Lydia and seemed to jerk her head to the side as to encourage her to reply to her other friend. The young girl giggled and said. "Well, Prudence, you would be partly right because Katie is actually a wolfdog or what is more known to be a wolf hybrid, I think." Her friend gave a nod after about a moment as she replied with. "I see, but doesn't that make her dangerous?" Lydia laughed at this as she shook her head and answered. "Not at all. In fact, she actually protected my house last night from an intruder and has been proven to be a gentle and sweet giant."

As if to prove her point, the wolfdog lowered her front down to appear nonthreatening toward the other girl, wagging her tail and panting happily. The small girl couldn't resist smiling as she moved to give the canine a pet on the head and getting a lick in return. "Well, I can see what you mean then, Lydia." She added with a giggle of her own. "Hey, we better get to class before Miss Shannon marks us late and gives out detentions." Bertha stated as she looked at her watch. Both Lydia and Prudence nodded, but before Lydia carried on with going in, she looked back to Katie and gave a little wave. "See you later, girl!" She said with some glee as she th and proceed on with her next oneen headed for class, leaving the canine to return back to Deetz's home and proceed on with her next one on one chat with the 'ghost with the most' himself. The wolfdog managed to sneak her way back to Lydia's bedroom as she moved look into the vanity mirror, jumping up to set her front atop its counter and standing up on her hindlegs. 'Well, Beetlejuice, let's just see what you're going to tell me in our own little chat.' She thought as she moved to stare into the mirror and place a paw gently upon it.


	5. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4_

In placing her paw upon the mirror, the wolfdog slowly began to close her eyes as she leaned her head down slightly, flicking her ears and looking to be in great concentration. If one were to look closely at her in this moment, then what would be seen is the little jewel upon her collar, glowing brightly. The light soon began to grow brighter and brighter as it coated the canine's collar and slowly worked its way to engulf her entire canid body. The wolfdog's eyes opened once again as she lifted her head to look directly into the mirror and said the simple phrase. "Deliver me to this world I call upon." With this spoken, Katie soon vanished into an aura that entered through the glass and eventually would reappear in the Neitherworld or more specifically, Beetlejuice's bedroom in the Roadhouse. Once the wolfdog had reformed, she had now taken on the form that was of the anthropomorphic kind. She stood at five feet and five inches with a casual sort of outfit on, mainly a shirt and jeans, and her collar still upon her neck. Her body shape was pudgy to say the least, she wasn't any kind of supermodel and that of which she could really care less to be. The canine looked at her reflection in the now tall standing mirror in front of her, puffing up a large tuft of hair in a curl that sat upon her head. A soft sigh escaped her as she thought to herself. 'Well, I'm surprised that the trick worked to get me here. The agency that put on this job sure knows how to amplify extra powers onto an item.'

Once finished with her thought, Katie looked to all sides of the room, well, the little bits she could see amongst the piles of filth that is. Her expression was less than impressed, but more along the lines of a bit disturbed with disgust as she shivered briefly. "What a mess." She mumbled to herself in a whisper. In her searching about, she finally managed to spot a coffin shaped bed and unfortunately, it had been empty. "Hmm, I wonder where that ghost could be?" She asked aloud, mostly to herself. However, before she could continue in her train of thought, a maniacal sounding cackle interrupted her. She held somewhat of a flat look as she seemed to look as if she were staring at an invisible audience. "You know, funny how things can instantly be found once you mention them." She said with a slightly raised brow as she began to move to the window beside the bed, looking out. Just as she had thought, there was Beetlejuice outside and across the street, cackling at a neighbor of his who had the misfortune to fall for another one of the ghost's pranks. Through her observation of what was lying around, the prank had to deal with a creature that appeared to be dog like with bull horns and a tail that resembled a cattle brand, being tormented first by the poltergeist and now hidden in its little house, which lead to the big fur covered neighbor to be so enraged that he had fallen from his ladder and cartoonishly landed in a bucket below, leaving him to get stuck and now to be hopping around in said bucket while letting out muffled curses.

The wolfdog gave another sigh and said. "I can't help, but feel sorry for the guy and his dog, but I also can't help not giggling at this too." She chuckled lowly as she then made her way to leave the bedroom, moving down the stairs cautiously in case other creatures were in the residence. "Ello mademoiselle, but who might you be?" Came a new voice with a distinguished French accent as Katie reached the bottom of the stairs. She was a tad startled as a yelp escaped her instinctively, turning around to find the owner of the voice. There before her stood quite a tall skeleton with a beret upon his head and a curly mustashe upon what was mainly his skull. The canid hesitated a moment before answering the tall skeleton. "Oh, I'm someone who is here to see Beetlejuice." She laughed nervously as she rubbed the back of her head before continuing. "I'm of the living world and I was sent by a rather exclusive agency to be made of an assistance to the 'ghost with the most' and his friend, Lydia. The name's Katie and it's a pleasure to meet you, mister?" She gave a courteous bow to him and gave a look of curiosity, awaiting his introduction. "Oh, oui, I am Jacques LaLean, I am Bea-eetlejuice's neighbour and 'ousemate. It is a pleasure to meet you, madame." The skeleton said, taking a gentle hold of the canine's pawhand and giving the same courteous bow in return to her.

"Oh, the pleasure is all mine, monsieur Jacques." She replied with a polite chuckle. "You speak French, madame?" Jacques asked in intrigue at the canid's use of a French term. Katie simply laughed softly and answered honestly with. "I only know very little French unfortunately, but at least that's better than not knowing anything out of the language at all." The skeleton laughed with her as he gave the only smile he could and said. "I guess zat tis true, ma chère." The wolfdog just smiled in return and gave another bow before moving toward the door. "Sorry, to cut this meeting short, but as I had said, I must speak with the ghost with the most." She gave a friendly wave to Jacques. "Catch you another time, sir." With that last bit said, she moved out the door quite quickly to head to where she had saw the aforementioned ghost. Speaking of Beetlejuice, he was still cackling on the ground while the monster he had pranked had made his own way out of the bucket trap with intent to give a brash pounding upon the poltergeist. "Urrrrrgh, Beetlejuice! Ya'll are gunna be a-payin' fer what you've a-done to my poor little Poopsie and I!" The monster had hollered in his rather deep southern accent as he jerked the ghost up by the front of his striped suit. Beetlejuice seemed to be sweating a bit in nervousness as a reaction to the monster doing this and gave a little 'eep' as well. The now anthropomorphic canine had made a rushed dash across the street as she raised her pawhands up in attempt to stop the monster.

"Whoa, hang on a second there, mister. I'm afraid I can't let you do that to the ghost." She stated rather boldly while trying not to be harsh. The monster turned his attention to the canid as he then dropped BJ from his hold, leading to the ghost landing on the ground with a thud and rubbing his backside. "And why might that a-be dear, little lady?" He asked with what could be assumed to be a raised brow, if a brow was visible that is. The monster's dog even seemed to give a bark or two as the strange canine known as Poopsie approached Katie, sniffing at her. The wolfdog simply gave a slight smile as she leaned down for a moment to give the other dog a gentle and soothing rub atop his head, causing his tail to wag quickly from left to right while she turned her gaze back to the monster to reply. "Well, let's just say I am scheduled to have a one on one discussion with the ghost here and I have initially been made another babysitter for him." She whispered the babysitter part to where only the big, hairy monster could hear her. The monster himself, soon removed his hat to regain his composure and speak more politely to the canid before him. "I see, well, uh, I do apologize fer the way I acted toward ya, miss? I'm sorry, but what might yer name a-be, little lady?" He said with a big smile to her. She simply giggled as she gave a more country styled bow to him and said. "The name's Katie, sir and I take that you would be known as the Monster Across the Street, correct?" This was just more of a guess at his name or even more of an observation to the obvious.

He nodded with a little hop of delight, causing the spurs to clink and click as he did so. "Yes, mam, that would a-be my name and that there would be my little Poopsie." He motioned toward the dog as he introduced him. Poopsie gave a happy and more greeting bark as he moved to sit at his master's side. Katie only laughed as she stood back on her, well, feetpaws and slowly moved over to Beeltejuice, helping him up from his place on the ground. "Well, it was nice to meet you both, but now, I shall be going with Beetlejuice for our little one on one time. Catch you later!" She shoved the poltergeist along a bit roughly as she gave a wave back to the monster and his dog. Once she and BJ were a good enough distance away, Katie turned to give a slightly annoyed look with a flat stare. The ghost simply gave her the same look as he asked in his gruff voice and somewhat whiney tone. "What, what, whaaaaaat?" The wolfdog sighed and briefly rubbed her forhead and replied with. "Let's just get this done with before I have to head back and get Lydia since that's the story her parents are led to believe." A thought added itself in her head. 'Yeah, such a normal sounding thing these days. A dog taking and picking your child to and up from school. I have to question her parents' intelligence a tad in that.'

She was soon snapped out of her thought as Beetlejuice retorted in unenthusiasm while asking. "Fiiine, let's get all this said and done then, mutt. So, what do ya wanna know about me?" Katie rolled her eyes to the side a little at the small insult as she replied. "Well, let's start off with what do you do when Lydia doesn't call you? I mean, I already noticed one thing you do and that being pulling pranks or causing trouble, but is that _all _you do when Lydia can't be around?" The poltergeist began floating along as he pondered the questions given, the canine following alongside him as she walked. "Hmm, well, I can't really say there's much else I do really, except maybe laze about and be bored when not pranking or causing chaos for the Neitherworldians." He answered bluntly as he held a dulled expression on his ghostly face. The wolfdog flicked an ear as she seemed to not be too impressed with his answer, but shrugged her shoulders as she said. "I see, well, how about this, what do you see Lydia as? I mean, as in what does she mean to you?" These questions seemed to make the poltergeist halt his hovering and give a look that clearly read, 'You're really asking me that?' The canid simply said in response to his look. "Yes, I'm asking you this sort of thing."

Beetlejuice exhaled out a sigh as he turned his head forward and his gaze downward, twiddling his red-tipped thumbs nervously. He held an expression that seemed to be of not feeling too comfortable on the subject presented. Afterall, from what Katie could read off him in meeting him, he didn't seem like the kind of touchy-feely guy or at least not the kind of open to speaking on certain feelings guy anyway. A couple minutes went by before he appeared to come to an answer in his mind as he answered. "Guess, Lydia means a great deal to me. I mean, hell, she's my best friend and we've been friends since she was a kid. Basically, she's just a great friend to me is all I can really say about her." The canine simply nodded to his answer in understanding much like she did with Lydia in the one on one with her. However, she could tell that there was something more than just the answer he gave, but the canid didn't bother pressing on it. Besides, she already sensed quite a lot about Beetlejuice and Lydia. So, why ruin things by pressing on the matter. "You know, I can tell that you and Lydia seem to see each other as the same. You both really seem to do good for each other." A slight smirk came across her face as she took a moment to tease the poltergeist a bit. "If I didn't know better, I'd think that you may even love that girl." This made the ghost fume a bit in annoyance as he looked back to her.

"I do not! Don't even say that word. Eeeeyuck!" He said in obvious denial as he stuck out his striped tongue in what he was surely hoping to be true disgust. Katie just laughed at him in response as she placed a pawhand on her forehead and over her eyes for a moment. "Whatever you say, Beetlejuice." She finally retorted after her laughter as she tauntingly stuck her tongue out at him. This only caused the ghost to hold an irritated grimace as he crossed his arms and turned his head away from her in a snobby sort of manner, making a 'hmph' sound. All this only made the wolfdog laugh all the more as she held her abdomen and tried to regain her breathing pattern. "Aww, such a touchy ghost you are." She taunted again at the poltergeist as she snickered. "Shaddup." Is what he gave to her in response as he and the canine made their way back toward the Roadhouse, considering they had walked a good distance away with their one on one session. The session itself took amazingly a good amount of time, along with the fact of the run ins with the ghost's neighbors being added in. As soon as they had returned, the canid looked to Beetlejuice and said. "Well, I think I shall head back. Have to be playing the dog who picks up their owner." She laughed briefly at the thought.

The ghost with the most simply rolled his eyes and said. "Yeah, yeah, go on and play fetch like a good mutt." To add emphasis on fetch he turned himself into a huge tennis ball with his face on it, but it lasted for a mere second or so before he reverted back to his usual self. Katie just sighed and replied with. "Catch you on the other side whenever you either pop up on an object or get called over." She stuck out her tongue at him again as she made a dash for the mirror in his bedroom again. Once there, she simply repeated the process of what she did prior to get into the Neitherworld. She set her pawhand upon the glass as an aura appeared and she said the short phrase once more while opening her eyes. "Deliver me to this world I call upon." Within seconds, she disappeared as an aura into the mirror and only to reappear as her feral form in Lydia's bedroom. She moved to stand on all fours as she shook herself off of anything that may have got onto her while in the land of the dead and then looked to the alarm clock, noting the time to be around a quarter after two in the afternoon. Her eyes went a little wide as she perked her ears up and stated the obvious. "I better get going and I mean, I got to high tail it out of this house."

With that said, the canine made an abnormally speedy dash out the door, which was luckily opened by Delia as her doggy woggy zipped past her in a furry blur and caused a cartoony gust effect that ruffled the woman's clothes for a brief moment. The red headed woman simply chuckled as she said with her usual cheesy grin. "Must be excited to exercise while going to get Lydia from school." Katie was panting heavily as she ran down the pathway from the house, heading for the town. 'I am so out of shape for my age.' She thought to herself as she began to slow her pace a bit in reaching the town's sidewalk. The wolfdog shook herself again as she tried to catch her breath after running, walking slowly in an easy trot as her tag and jewel jingled on her collar slightly. It took a good few minutes, but Katie had finally made it to the school's front, noticing Lydia waving goodbye to her two friends, Bertha and Prudence. The young girl, herself, could hear the claws of the familiar canine clacking against the concrete as she turned to greet her newly made companion, petting her atop the head as she smiled. "Ah, there you are, girl." She said, playing the role of the caring dog owner. In which, Katie played the happy dog in return, barking in greeting as her tail wagged to and fro.

"Like, what is that disgusting beast? Figures, that you'd have such a thing, Lydia." Another voice chimed in with an annoyingly preppy, as well as, disgusted tone. Lydia scowled and grumbled under her breath to herself for the most part, but Katie acknowledged it as she too lowered her ears in irritation to the new voice. "Hello, Claire." Lydia said in an annoyed tone as she forced on a slight smile and turned to face a blonde haired girl with blue eyes and plump lips. 'Oh no, it's a living Barbie doll.' Was the thought that came to the canine's mind as her eyes widened a bit. "So, like, what is _that_?" Claire asked again as she pointed to the wolfdog. "This is my new dog or wolfdog rather, Katie." Lydia answered, not very pleased with Claire's attitude. The canid, herself, was the same as she began to growl lowly and give a glare at the living Barbie doll slut, baring her fangs into a snarl as she slowly stalked toward the other girl too. This caused Claire to feel a tad frightened as she backed away a couple steps. "Like, call her off, freak." She demanded with fear being made known in her tone. The insult only made the canine growl and snarl even louder at her. Claire squealed in terror and this only gave the wolfdog an idea as she mentally smirked to herself.

Katie took this exact moment to mess with the blonde head a bit as she then spoke. "You know, Barbie dolls like you really give a bad name to other blondes. Preppy sluts like you can't even do the simplest of tasks. You want to know something, kid? I'm a blonde too, but I at least have the intelligence to know that it's not wise to pick on people or animals especially and you know why that is? Hm, do you?" She bore her fangs as much as she could and continued. "Because with fangs like this, a little thing like you could be easily ripped apart if you provoke at an animal enough." She held a rather dark grin on her muzzle as she got eye to eye with Claire. "Now, I think you may want to run along and never mess with my master again." The blonde prep was now frozen in horror as she trembled with absolute fear. The canid smirked and gave a loud and fierce bark in the girl's face, which made her jump up to her feet and flee within a millisecond. Snickers soon escaped the wolfdog as they grew into laughter, causing Lydia to join in and even bring about another laugh or cackle specifically from the all too familiar poltergeist who had made himself as the hedge beside the two. "Babes, that was a riot. I never thought I'd ever see Claire be more terrified of something that isn't even, well, me. Ah, hahahaha, oh, hohoho." Beetlejuice cackled as he held an impressed smirk toward the canid. "Beej, I have to agree with you there." Lydia replied through her own laughter.

A smile came upon the wolfdog's muzzle as she swayed her tail about and gave a bow of her head, lifting her right, front paw. "Thank you, thank you. I'm here all week." She chimed, laughing a bit more before ceasing. Lydia only giggled as she rubbed her companion between the ears. BJ then put his gaze back on his best friend as he said. "Lyds, how about layin' those B words on me?" He wiggled his brows slightly as he held his signature grin. The young girl merely laughed at him and nodded. "Alright. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!" As that was said, the ghost with the most had joined the two and decided to make himself small, taking a seat atop the wolfdog's head. Katie raised her teal eyes in his direction as he did so and simply panted a bit, smiling as her tail wagged about. "Onward home, Jeeves." Beetlejuice said in his mock British accent as he pointed ahead. This made both Lydia and Katie snicker a little as they all started to make their way back to the Deetz's home.


	6. Chapter 5

_Chapter 5_

A time span of three months had gone by as the wolfdog grew quite comfortable with being a family pet, as well as, a best friend to Lydia and maybe even Beetlejuice too. Granted, the canine continued to see the task as a job, but it was becoming a fun one at least. The day was a Saturday afternoon with Lydia having 'volunteered' to take Katie out for a walk toward the park where she would meet up with the ghost with the most. Beetlejuice had chose to make himself be in his Betty Juice disguise as he or she, in this case, joined alongside the two when summoned. The canid lifted a brow to the poltergeist as she held a flat look and made a quick remark lowly. "You make a terrible girl, you know that?" 'Betty' simply grinned and replied in a mock girly voice. "Awww, thanks." Lydia couldn't help, but giggle at her best friend's usual response. The young girl then said to the canid. "He, er, I mean, 'she' takes insults as compliments." A laugh soon escaped her after that as the wolfdog just smiled in response, going back into pet mode, so to speak. The trio kept walking for a good while until they reached an open area of the park with intent to have a bit of fun. The space was pretty much empty aside for the trio, themselves. Hence, making it the perfect place for great fun with Beetlejuice and his juicing abilities.

Lydia looked to 'Betty' who had now returned back to Beetlejuice in his striped suit and asked. "Can you get the ball I gave you out of your pocket?" The ghost blinked for a few moments before he started digging in both of his pockets, throwing and pulling out various things from snakes to insects until finally he found the item that was asked for. "Here ya go, Lyds. Why'd ya bring that anyway?" He asked as he handed the ball to the girl, which she took with a smile. "Because I thought maybe Katie would love a game of fetch." She answered with a giggle. Said canine lifted her ears and looked to Lydia intently, looking quite interested as she spoke. "Fetch?" She panted briefly as her tongue lolled out the side of her mouth and she got into that generic playful position all dogs do when they get excited for something, wagging her tail happily. Beetlejuice just snickered under his breath at how the canine looked while Lydia just laughed and prepared to throw the ball. "Ready?" Katie couldn't resist letting out a bark of joy as she jumped up in a prancing manner. "Yes, yes!" She exclaimed as she panted more energetically. Within seconds, the ball was thrown a good distance off as Lydia released it, smiling and laughing happily.

Katie's ears perked upright as she instantly ran after said ball on instinct, barking and panting in great fun as her tail swayed about. She sniffed around a bit until she came upon the round object, chuckling as she moved to pick it up in her mouth before heading back. Meanwhile, as the canine had scampered after the ball, Beetlejuice was starting to show off as he used his juice to make a nearby tree start dancing around as it also moved to pick up some decent sized stones to start juggling them. The ghost then said as if looking into a camera. "Now there's some fancy wood work, pfft." Lydia watched the tree as she smiled and laughed even more than she had been. "Beej, you're so ridiculous." She said between her giggles. The poltergeist puffed out his chest a bit in pride as he replied, feeling full of himself. "Aww, babes, you know me so well." He then cackled loudly in his own delight as he then juiced a couple more trees to be a bigger show off, which is what he enjoyed doing. After all, Beetlejuice was Beetlejuice. A couple minutes passed as the wolfdog returned to the scene with the ball and seemed to stop in her pace as she got back to her friends. It wasn't the sight of the juiced trees that got her to stop, but something else.

The ball was soon dropped to the ground as the canid's fur stood up on her neck, hackles going up slightly as a low growl escaped her throat. Lydia was snapped out of her enjoyment at hearing the growl as she asked in worry. "Hey, what's wrong?" BJ had a raised brow in confusion and hint of worry to his eyes at seeing how the canine was now acting as his prior show had come to a halt. He too soon began to feel uneasy in sensing something that Katie had. "Babes, I think we need to get out of here." He said in a fearful sounding tone. Lydia became more concerned as she looked back to her friend. "What's going on Beej?" She asked in her own fear, which was starting to bubble up inside her. The wolfdog soon let out a fierce and shrill bark, snarling rather viciously and protectively as her attention was turned to where she had just come from. The forested area beyond the open space let out the sound of snapping trees and faint groaning roars, which led to causing the ground to vibrate underneath the trio. The vibration made Lydia fall backwards into Beetlejuice as he caught her in his arms since he had been currently floating in the air instead of standing. The cause of all this chaos was slowly slinking out of the woods, it was an all too familiar creature and mainly one that BJ and Lydia knew too well.

The poltergeist let out a screechy scream as his eyes seemed to pop from his sockets for a moment before instantly pulling back in. Lydia's jaw hung open in not only fear, but shock and even slight surprise at seeing a gigantic size sandworm before them. "A s-s-sandworm?" She questioned with her fear intact as she stuttered in sheer disbelief. "How is th-this e-even possible?" She added. Beetlejuice was now trembling and kind of subconsciously pulling her closer to him as he made noises similar to a whining dog, go figure. Katie bore her fangs as she moved to stand in front of the two. The sandworm just seemed to stare the wolfdog down as it too growled and let its massive mouth hang slightly open. Lydia looked up at BJ while in his hold and tried to wave a hand in front of him. "Beej, you've got to do something!" She exclaimed, fear growing more prominent in her voice. The ghost seemed to jerk out of his own terror as he looked to the girl in his arms. "Wh-what do you expect me to do, Lyds?" He asked shakily as his trembling regressed down to shivering. Before she could even say another word to him, her attention was grasped by a glowing light in front of them. A gasp escaped her as she witnessed the canid holding the position she made before, but now had feathered wings that were sprouting from upon her shoulders.

The wolfdog outstretched her wings as they appeared and the length of them was clearly twelve feet in total from wing tip to wing tip. Each wing was half black and half ruby red with the black coating the top and ruby red coating the bottom. The ruby red feathers were even tipped with the black. She let out another fierce bark as she flapped her wings forward in aggression, snarling all the more as she opened her muzzle much more. Both Lydia and even Beetlejuice were awestruck at the sight of the wings and previous glow. In that moment, neither of them could recall even being afraid of the sandworm. "Hey, Beetlejuice!" Katie's voice called out to him. "You going to puss out or are you up for a fun fight?" She asked as a smirk grew along the canine's muzzle, during her snarling and growling. The poltergeist seemed to smirk back at the presented question, as well as, challenge. He moved to gently set Lydia down before heading to stand beside the canid, his grin growing rather creepy as he said. "Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit's SHOWTIME!" He let out his signature maniacal laughter as he let the juice flow to his hands. Katie simply gave him a cocky glance and added. "Indeed it is."

Lydia just made sure to stay behind the two as they began to go after the sandworm with Katie leaping upward with a good amount of speed and latching onto the neck of the beast, digging her fangs in what could be assumed to be the jugular. Beetlejuice, on the other hand, was blasting some juice at the worm, causing numerous things to occur to it. Namely, some trees falling onto its body or large stones conking it on the head and making lumps appear. The sandworm, itself, let out ferocious roars of pain and anguish from being bombarded and made a chew toy. The wolfdog was drawing quite a bit of blood from this creature as she jerked from side to side in flying left and right. Said attack made the worm groan out in pain and gasped for a breath even, but to no avail. Lydia was a little queasy at the sight of the sandworm's oozing blood as she covered her eyes with her hands in disgust. Beetlejuice awaited to make a final hit to the beast as he moved to juice another stone upon its head. However, this stone was actually a boulder, which at the sight of made the wolfdog release her grip on the worm and get out of the way moments before the rock completely smashed its head. She landed on the ground, panting and pawing at her muzzle to wipe away the blood or attempt to. The wings upon her shoulders had vanished once she landed.

BJ had moved to check on Lydia as he returned to the ground. "You okay, babes?" He asked with worry in his tone as he began to lightly pull her hands away. The young girl looked to her friend as her hands had been moved away and simply hugged him in response. She then looked over to her canine companion who had managed to get the blood off her muzzle and sighed with relief at seeing that the wolfdog was okay. As for the sandworm, in its demise, its body had dissipated in miniscule orbs of light, which was kind of a beautiful sight in a morbid way one could say. Lydia and Beetlejuice watched as the deceased sandworm vanished completely. The two then headed over to the canid companion and said canine stood as they reached her. "Follow me." She said softly as she jerked her head forward from whence the defeated beast had come. The duo blinked for a second, but nodded finally as they both trailed after the wolfdog. Along the way, Lydia spoke to break the silence caused from the event. "Uh, may I ask how that sandworm got here exactly?" She asked with a rather worried expression. Katie glanced back at her before coming to a complete stop in lieu of walking the good distance. "Take a look in front of me and you'll have your answer." She answered as she turned her own focus ahead.

Both Beetlejuice and Lydia moved up and were left without words as they saw the sight before them all. In the ground below, down a slope, there was a massive crack or crater in the earth. "This..." Katie started with apologetic eyes before continuing. "...is one of many things I had a sense about or essentially foresaw." A sigh escaped her. "This is the result of something or maybe even someone who is trying to break the barriers of the Neitherworld and this world. It is something that should not be buried and forgotten, so to speak. This is a deadly fate that must be resolved right away. For if not dealt with, then let's just say that both worlds will be put off worse than a living or burning hell hole. Pardon my language, but it'll be some deep shit for all to where no one will survive in life or the afterlife." She paused for a moment as she took in a breath. "This is something that I had seen coming with the job as I had told you when we first met. This will be the beginning of a horrifying future for you two if nothing is done." She looked to Beetlejuice. "You, ghost with the most are far more worthy than you may wish to believe because I can only tell you that you will gain a great reward in this given crusade." Her eyes then turned to Lydia. "And you, Lydia are much stronger than you may know. You too will even have a lot to earn in all this." She held a determined smile upon her muzzle.

"I ask you both this simple question. Do you think that you're up for this task with me and are you prepared for the biggest adventure of your lives?" The canine held her smile as she looked to both of them, awaiting an answer. Both Lydia and Beetlejuice stood in silence as thoughts raced through their minds. A good amount of time goes by before the two look to one another and then back to the canine. "I'm ready and am willing to make myself prepared for this." The young girl answered with a rather righteous smirk on her face and a determined look in her eyes. The ghost, himself, let out a sigh as if annoyed or maybe bored. "Well, if Lyds is up for it, then I guess I have no choice, but to join in." He said smoothly, a smirk growing on his own face as he green teeth became exposed in it. Katie held her smile to them both as she also held a rather excited expression. "Well, glad to hear it. Now, let's all just make ourselves prepared for any other beasts or incidents that are thrown our way." She said with a confident laugh, which caused them all to laugh out in excitement more than anything. After the laughter, Lydia then got the urge to ask the wolfdog about the little transformation she and BJ had witnessed. "Hey, why is it that you have wings?" Katie looked to the girl and simply smiled brightly at her as she replied. "Well, as I had told you before, I am a special human with nifty powers and those wings you saw are just another one of those said powers." She gave a teasing sort of slight smirk. "There's a lot of surprises I have up my sleeves, figuratively speaking of course." She added with a giggle.

Lydia laughed a little too and nodded in understanding. "Hey, babes, you know that I have plenty up my sleeves too." Beetlejuice chimed in as he wiggled his brows and grinned in a goofy sort of manner, lifting both sleeves to expose all sorts of creepy crawlies under them. This caused Lydia to laugh even more as she smiled at him and began walking with him and her canine companion. "Yeah, I know Beej." She said with a giggle as she looked at him happily. Katie simply smiled at the two of them as she thought. 'Well, our journey is now going to begin and this job is going to become much tougher for all. However, even in all the chaos that is to come, there still can be fun to have when the chance allows it that is.' The trio soon made their way back home with a tiny Beetlejuice hidden in the wolfdog's fur. It had become dinner time and Delia was busy making a hopefully edible one in the kitchen. Lydia just made her way to her room with the wolfdog and ghost upon her, following behind. Once all were in her bedroom, BJ had gone back to his usual size and began to hover in mid air while Lydia moved to lay down on her bed for a bit. The canid, herself, did the same, except she chose the floor to lay on. The trio all looked to one another with small smiles and confident eyes as if to be sharing a mental message of some sort.

They all seemed to relax like this for a good half hour until they all were snapped back to reality from Delia's voice calling up the stairs. "Lyyyydiiiiaaaaa, dinner's ready. Come down with the doggy woggy and eat!" Lydia called back to her as she sat up in bed. "Coming Mother!" Beetlejuice let out a yawn and said. "Babes, I'm going to head back to the Neitherworld and hit the hay early." As soon as he said 'hit the hay', he had a haystack floating in front of him while he turned into his boxer get up and socked a punch to it. Both the wolfdog and girl giggled at this briefly before Lydia replied. "Okay then, see you tomorrow, Beetlejuice...Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice." With the say of his name three times, he was sent back to the Roadhouse and more importantly, his coffin bed. Once he was gone, the young girl and her canid companion headed down to dinner, which was again edible, but just didn't look it. The usual routine went on during dinner, the same old family discussion came and went as the meal was over. Thus, leading into bedtime as both Lydia and Katie carried on in going to sleep, wondering just what the next day would bring their way.


	7. Chapter 6

_Chapter 6_

Midnight struck over in the Neitherworld as Beetlejuice was lying awake in his coffin bed, staring aimlessly at the ceiling. Thinking of what had happened earlier in the day, that's what the ghost was doing and thinking deeply without provocation didn't happen very often for him. He darted his yellow eyes back to the clock and saw that it had only been a minute with his thinking, which felt like hours to him. A sigh escaped him as his eyelids went halfway closed, grunting to himself as he finally spoke. "What in the Neitherworld is wrong with me? What's with all this deep thinkin' shit of my own accord?" He grasped the sides of his head slightly and tugged on his pale blonde hair. "Am I actually 'feeling' something?" He couldn't recall ever having much feeling to start with when he came into what was his afterlife. "Hmm, nah, that can't be it. Me, actually 'feeling'? What a joke, pfft." He released his head and hair as he just laid still in his bed. "I need to pull myself together." With this said, he literally had to pull himself together due to his body breaking into parts. "Literal translations, you know I hate 'em." He said to no one in particular in getting himself whole again. The poltergeist sighed to mainly himself as he then turned on his side and pulled the covers over his being, shutting his eyes completely and attempting to sleep once more.

Hours went on by in what seemed like seconds as the light of morning came in through the tattered curtains of the window in his bedroom. BJ was less than enthusiastic to awaken because he wasn't exactly a morning person or dead guy to be accurate. He let out a few groans as his eyes flapped open, much like shades on a window would. The ghost with the most groggily say up in his coffin as he stretched his arms upward, causing the shirt of his pajamas to rise up and expose the known pot belly of his. A yawn left him in an exhale of what could be deemed a green smog of nasty breath. Said smog was soon inhaled again through the poltergeist's nostrils in a snort as that same toothy grin appeared upon his face. "Morning breath, you know I love it." He said while he proceeded to get out or float out of his bed, heading down the stairs to the living or dead room, in this case, to then make way to the kitchen. Beetlejuice moved to open the fridge only to find very little in it, except for a molded sandwich and some sort of what could be guessed as a beetle casserole. The ghost let out a gruff groan as he contemplated the options. "It's either eat what's here, go out on a 'hunt', pay for something else, or steal or con a meal instead." He said with a chuckle and a snort. "Hmm, guess I'll just combine the sandwich with the casserole and steal or con later for means of acquiring something else later."

He held a smirk as he did the usual 'look to the camera' bit and said. "You know me, kids. I never really pay for anything, pfft." With that said, he continued on in preparing his own breakfast as he added some casserole to the sandwich and took that usual bite, causing the loud and slightly disturbing crunch noise. BJ wasn't exactly the most proper and pleasant ghost, so there's not much one could expect out of him that was of that nature. The poltergeist made his way back toward the dead room and then back toward his bed room, intending to check in on his best friend and the mutt to see if either were awake yet. He really was wondering what today would bring their way, considering the events of yesterday. The only thing he was hoping for is that there wouldn't be anymore sandworms popping up. In fact, he shivered at the thought of those creature. As many would know, he hated them and was terrified of them, unless Lydia was with him because that's the only time the ghost managed to be brave against his fear. These thoughts continued to run through the ghost's mind since last night, it kind of bothered him a bit. He pounded on his head as he reached his room once again and said, mostly to himself. "Knock off the thinkin' in there." His tone was somewhat annoyed per usual to whenever he had these moments. 'I need to clear my head of all this before I go nuts.' He thought as he turned to the mirror.

Opposite to the poltergeist's morning, the start of Katie and Lydia's was considered to be normal. The birds chirped their morning songs as the sun rose up brightly in the sky, which was the usual Sunday morning here and there. The singing birds lead to the wolfdog, herself, stirring at the foot of Lydia's bed as she let out a yawn and stretched her forelegs out a bit, looking over to her 'owner' as she flicked an ear slightly. It was kind of quiet in the household, at least that's what the canine managed to note in flicking her ear. This made her want to go and take a look around before disturbing Lydia from her sleep. The canid slowly moved off the bed and made her way toward the bedroom door, doing the usual motion to get it open. The door itself creaked a little at being pushed open as the wolfdog poked her head out for a look. All she could see was the light of the sun's rays snaking in as a source to brighten the house. "Hmm?" Is all that escaped her as she exited the bedroom entirely and walked toward the top of the stair case. She stood there for a moment in thought and was interrupted by the sound of oncoming footsteps or more so, pawsteps. The canine turned her head downward a tad and noticed the owner of the steps. It was Percy the cat who let out a slight meow at seeing the wolfdog looking him over.

Katie simply gave a nonthreatening smile to him as she greeted Percy with a gently lick atop the feline's head. "Good morning to you too, Percy." She said softly in almost a whisper as the cat, himself, returned her greeting with his own by rubbing his entire body against the canine's front legs. A chuckle escaped the wolfdog as she listened to the cat even give a purr of appreciation. "Could you excuse me a moment? I'm going to find out why it's so quiet around here." She stated gently as she held a brief gaze upon the feline. Percy seemed to nod to her as he stepped aside and continued on his way down the hall to go into the master bedroom. The wolfdog smiled she watched him go and soon continued on her own way down the staircase to investigate the lack of noise. She first poked her head into the living room and found no one their. "I'll check the kitchen." She whispered to herself as she did as said. Once she looked in the kitchen, it was the same as the living room, there was no one in sight. She then turned her attention to the refridgerator, noticing some sort of daily planner and moving to take a look for maybe a clue on what was going on. As the canid had thought, there was a message left on it, which read, 'Out for the day to run a few errands with Delia, will be back in the evening. Love Dad.'

The message made the wolfdog tilt her head slightly as she let out a simple 'huh' sound as if to express her acknowledgement of it. "Well, since her parents are away, I guess I can go into another form of mine and maybe get a real breakfast made that's both edible and looks it too." Katie said with another flick of the ear. "Better get started then." She added before closing her eyes for a moment and beginning to change her form. The same aura appeared around her body, much like when she had to go through the mirror, began encasing her entire form. Within the time of a few minutes the canine body had slowly became more humanoid in shape and similar to the anthro form, but more human of course. When the aura retreated, the wolfdog had now become her semi-human form, which meant she still had the canine ears, claws on her hands, fangs, and tail, as well as, the collar still around her neck and clothed in the same casual outfit of a shirt and jeans. "Now, I can really get started." She said with a chuckle as she carried on in making breakfast for herself and her newly made friend. It only took around fifteen minutes to make the meal, but it at least looked better than what Delia would usually have made. The canine or young woman had made scrambled eggs and pancakes with syrup. She smiled at herself with a small pride as she swayed her tail a bit behind her.

Katie took a moment to go awaken Lydia in her room, entering carefully and quietly as she moved to the side of the bed and began to lightly nudge at her friend. "Hey, breakfast is ready. Time to wake up." She said gently and almost in a motherly fashion. The young girl, herself stirred a littlte at hearing the familiar voice, but realized that the feel of what was nudging her was not exactly canid. Her eyes snapped open as she turned to look at who was nudging her, hoping it to be the wolfdog. A surprised gasp escaped her as she fumbled a bit and nearly fell off her bed. This happened to be when Beetlejuice chose to appear in the mirror on the vanity as he seemed to let out a protective growl in lieu of what he saw. The young woman held up her hands to the poltergeist in the mirror as she laughed a little at Lydia's reaction. "You both can relax, it's me. You know, the wolfdog?" She stated this as she moved to open the curtains to the balcony, light coming in to make her ears and tail more noticeable than in the dark. Both Lydia and BJ seemed to laugh nervously at how they each reacted toward their new friend. "Sorry, Katie, but I still have a tendency to do that. Get surprised, that is." The young girl said with a giggle and small apologetic smile. "Babes, you should be more use to this sort of stuff. I mean, you _do_ hang around with the ghost with the most, remember?" Beetlejuice said with a snort as he grinned at her and young woman both.

"Well, now that that's out of the way, I should repeat that breakfast is ready for you and has been made by yours truly." Katie said with the same smile on her face. Lydia seemed to tilt her head slightly as if to ask on the thought of her parents. Her friend caught the hint and simply answered with. "They left a message that said they were going to be out running errands all day and won't back until the evening." She gave a shrug and added. "I'm not aware of much as to why your parents would stay out that long, but you know, it'll just leave the three of us to more fun. Wouldn't you agree, Beetlejuice?" She looked in the poltergeist's direction with her question. The ghost, himself, simply grinned wider as he nodded and replied. "I sure as hell would, mutt." He turn to Lydia from his place in the mirror. "Come on, babes, we could have some more fun in the Neitherworld." The young girl seemed to smile happily at the idea as she stated. "Then we will do just that, but first, Katie and I need to have our breakfast." The younger woman's stomach seemed to let out a groan as if to agree. "I think I can agree to that motion." She said, laughing in a bit of embarrassment as her ears lowered slightly to the sides of her human head. "Alright Lyds, ya both can go chow down, but can I at least come out too?" The poltergeist replied as he gave the pleading puppy look to his best friend.

Lydia just laughed at him as she nodded to his answer. "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!" She chimed as she was soon greeted by the ghost in a hug, a hug that felt different from any other time he'd hugged her. However, the girl, herself, just shook it off and thought better to think on it later as she lightly pushed BJ off. The ghost simply chuckled as he smiled the same crooked smile and rubbed the back of his head as if to shake off thoughts of his own. "Well, I'll catch you downstairs, Lydia." Katie said as she turned her attention to the poltergeist, grabbing the collar of his suit to drag him along too. "You, ghost with the most are coming along too. We need to let Lydia change into another outfit for the day." Beetlejuice was not too amused with the young woman dragging him with her as he grumbled to himself, knowing full well that if he tried to say anything that he'd surely get a conk on the head from either of the two females. Once both were out of the bedroom, BJ held an annoyed expression toward the young woman, looking almost like an upset toddler who hadn't gotten his way. Katie simply snickered at his irritated face and said just to be a taunting bitch, literally. "You know, you're making yourself look awfully guilty of feeling something for her." She then laughed as she began moving down the staircase again.

Well, at least she accomplished in annoying the poltergeist even more as he had steam come out of his ears whilst he melted through the floor to reach the lower level of the house and head for the kitchen. Katie had took her place at the table and was pouring a couple glasses of orange juice for herself and Lydia. Beetlejuice sat across from her, holding his annoyed look and gaze toward the young woman. Within a minute or two, the two heard Lydia approaching as the young girl came down the stairs and entered to join them, taking a seat next to her best friend as she smiled and became amazed at the sight of a breakfast that actually looked like one. Delia's meals always looked, well, bizarre and neither Lydia or Katie enjoyed that about it nor did they enjoy when the meals ended up tasting as bad they would appear. "This looks wonderful!" She exclaimed with delight in her eyes. "Glad you think so, Lydia." The young woman replied with a small smile as she moved to hand her friend a glass of orange juice, which she accepted happily. "You know, if she didn't have to play mutt, then she could make all meals like this because Delia's cooking is scarier than sandworms." Beetlejuice remarked with a simple laugh and a snort. Lydia couldn't help, but agree in nodding at his statement, despite the fact that he insulted her new friend. "I do kind of wish for that, BJ, but I don't think I want another fiasco of the doggy woggy kind." She said honestly.

"Well, Lydia, I could always do it on days like this, but any other time would be near impossible." Katie admitted as she offered the young girl a fork and widened her prior smile. "But why don't we just enjoy this while it lasts for the moment." She added with a giggle. Lydia took the fork in a thankful manner as she replied. "Well, then I guess I will." A laugh escaped her at that as she and her new friend began to dig in while BJ just reclined in mid air with his hands behind his head. A half hour went by before the first good breakfast was completed and the dishes washed. "Shall we all be off to the land of the dead then?" The young woman asked with an excited grin, tail wagging instinctively. Lydia laughed as she responded to her more than excited friend. "I should say so." She turned to the poltergeist and asked. "You ready, Beej?" The ghost with the most smirked as he goofily wiggled his eyebrows and replied. "I'm more than ready, babes. In fact, I'll go stir crazy if we don't get moving." Once again, he emphasized his point with a visual pun of him turning into a coffee stirrer and stirring into a giant mug. Unfortunately for the the ghost, there was also hot coffee in the mug, which caused him to jump out as his usual form and screech in pain from the heat. "YEEEEEEEEEEOOOUCH!" He comically hopped around a bit, rubbing at his ass and groaning in discomfort for a brief moment until the pain subsided. Both of the women laughed at his expense, but Lydia at least stopped and showed her concern for her best friend.

"You okay, Beej?" She asked, trying to pull back on her laughing. Beetlejuice gave a thumbs up in return to her and said. "Don't worry, Lyds, I'll be fine." He gave her his toothy grin as he ruffled her hair before moving toward the stairs. "Let's get going, babes." He added with a slight cackle as he headed back to her bedroom. Lydia snickered as she followed after him with Katie tailing behind her. "We're coming, BJ." She chimed in joy as she and her new friend returned to her bedroom, closing the door behind themselves. The young girl then moved to close her curtains as she began to chant. "Though I know I should be wary." She twirled around toward the table with Katie and Beetlejuice at her sides. "Still I venture some place scary." She raised up her arms and hands as the lantern flickered with a flame on the small, round table. "Ghostly hauntings, I turn loose. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!" As the chant was done, the room began its usual transformation where the ceiling seemed to raise upwards and disappear. The walls became stone in the color of blue as a staircase formed to lead up to another door, aside from the other door below that was close to a now deformed and filthy looking bed. A screechy chirping noise could be heard above as a couple bats flew downward from some questionable wooden beams and lastly, a spider web patterned poncho appeared on the young girl, appearing as a color of blue first before quickly changing to red. Along with the poncho was an almost full body black suit that showed up on her that seemed to not cover Lydia's fingers and a pair of black, flat shoes.

"We're here and now, it's time to PAARRRRTAAAAYYY!" The poltergeist exclaimed in excitement as he cackled maniacally and had a sombrero briefly appear on his head as he floated upward. Lydia and Katie laughed with delight as they watched the ghost's antics as he was extending his arms outward and soon changing the sombrero into a merry-go-round looking thing atop his head. "Well, Beetlejuice, what do you suggest we should do? I mean, you're entertaining as a show off, but those who were to be reading this like a story would certainly want more than that." Katie said to the ghost as she seemed to break a fourth wall of some sort. BJ simply cackled all the more as he hovered back down and reverted back to his abnormal self. "There's plenty to do in the Neitherworld, mutt. There's the Shocking Mall or the Eye-Scream Shop, or even the Abusement Park and so much more. Just take your pick and it shall be done." He said in a carny showmen type tone with a smirking grin that yet again exposed his crooked, green teeth. The young woman chuckled and just shrugged, glancing to Lydia. "Well, what do you think?" Her friend just giggled and smiled joyfully. "I say we take a drive and see what we find." She said in glee. "Sounds like a plan to me, babes." Beetlejuice agreed with a laugh and another one of his snorts. Katie nodded her agreement and just said. "Then, let's get a move on." With all said and done, the trio then made their way up the stone stairs and out into the Neitherworld to get their fun started.


	8. Chapter 7

_Chapter 7_

Well, the trio had made their fun choices of going to the Shocking Mall and catching a Neitherworld flick first. It was quite the enjoyable start to their day and it had reached the afternoon by the world of the living's time, which was about a half hour after three. Where as the Neitherworld's time was not even close to noon, but more like half past eleven in the morning. One can only be intrigued by the oddity and almost illogical sense of time between the two worlds, but this is just what each of the group had grown to know. Anyway, as for the trio, themselves, they had all made their way back toward the Roadhouse where each had been greeted with friendly beeps from an oddly looking vehicle or two that were parked outside the house. "Did I just hear a form of communication from some cars?" Katie asked a bit surprised and rather interested in curiosity as she lifted a brow slightly and flicked one of the canid ears atop her head. Lydia looked to her with a brief laugh as she answered. "You did actually." She then pointed over to a dull, lime and yellow colored vehicle next to a bright pink one. "That would be Doomie and Pinky, you hear." The humanoid canine tilted her held to the side for a moment as she took a look at the two cars she was directed to, taking notice of their headlight eyes and somewhat grill mouths. The older woman, herself, then took a step closer toward them, flicking her tail from side to side. Said motion of her tail, making Lydia and the poltergeist beside her to jump a bit as if to expect something bad to happen as they both eyed the lime and yellow colored car.

The sound of the duo jumping caught her attention as she glanced back at them questioningly. "Something wrong?" She asked, looking a tad confused. The two friends then became shocked to see that the aforementioned car known as Doomie was not reacting in the way they knew him to in seeing anything dog like. The car, himself, even looked a bit confused at his two creators as he looked to them. Beetlejuice simply chuckled for a second before he decided to answer the young woman's question. "Well, Doomaroo here, usually goes insane when he sees anythin' that's even dog like. So, me and Lyds kind of get a bit jumpy about that sort of thing, know whut I mean?" She simply giggled and turned to smile at the vehicle in question. "I see, but I think I look too human for him to go bonkers." She said as she moved to pat the hood of Doomie. The car just smiled and beeped happily at the meeting of a new friend. Katie just laughed a little and gave the vehicle a compliment. "I can also see that this is a gentleman car. After all, he does have a lovely lady auto by his side." Both Doomie and Pinky honked at that as they each gave the young woman a big grin. All this in turn caused Lydia to laughed a little and look pleased at the given compliment to her and BJ's vehicular companions.

The ghost, however, stuck his striped tongue out in disgust at the pleasantries. "Bleh, eeeeyyyyuck." Was all he could muster to say. The young woman just rolled her eyes in response to the ghoul's disgust as she then motioned toward the door, opening it. "Shall we all just retire to the living, err, I mean, dead room to relax a bit before heading back." She suggested with a grin, causing Lydia to laugh. "Of course, besides, That Darn Werewolf is about to start." The young girl chimed in answering as she zipped inside, dragging her best friend with her while her new friend followed along behind them both. As soon as the trio got seated on the dusty, dirty, and old couch, they were all soon greeted by a large spider in what looked to be a pink dancer's suit and heels, hanging from a strand of thread. "Hey there Lydia, honey. How's it goin'?" The spider's voice was feminine with a mixture of New York and New Jersey sounding accent. Said spider then turned her attention to the young woman, whom was trembling a bit while remaining still. "What's wrong with Katie?" She asked. Clearly, the spider had met Katie during the time she's been around the ghoul and the young girl, but that didn't mean she had grown comfortable at the fact this other creature was a spider. Lydia moved to reach and rub at the canid humanoid's ear in attempt to relax her, answering the spider. "Well, Ginger, it's all going quite well and I guess she's still not adjusted to you."

The young woman simply gave an apologetic smile to the spider known as Ginger. "Yeah, kind of hard to get over a fear of spiders right away. I'm sorry to say that, Ginger, but I still have to get use to the idea, you know." She said as the humanoid relaxed a little at her new friend's gesture. The spider nodded in understanding as she gave a small smile and replied with. "Oh, no harm done, honey. I can understand perfectly, just need more time, right?" Katie responded by nodding in answer before turning her attention back to the TV and watching the show that was mentioned before. Beetlejuice busted out with a cackle when a scene came on with the werewolf doing something stupid. "Ahahahahahahahaha, no matter how many times I've seen this episode, it's still damn funny every time." The poltergeist said while cackling all the more. Lydia conversed with Ginger in the meanwhile as the time grew late. Well, late in the living world that is. It was now six in the evening there as opposed to what the Neitherworld time was. The young woman nudged at her friend and said. "Hey, I think we need to head back." The young girl turned to look at the watch BJ had gotten her years ago as a friend anniversary gift. "Oh geez, you're right!" She exclaimed as she looked back to the spider and bowed her head while getting up. "Sorry, Ginger, but we need to go. I'll catch you later and good luck on learning the new dance!" She then pulled the ghoul along with her out the door while Katie followed behind them and Ginger retreated back into the walls.

"Whoa, babes! What's the rush?" Beetlejuice asked as he was dragged along once again. "We need to get back before my parents do." The young girl quickly answered as she rushed along for the door they all had come through earlier in the morning. Once back inside the stone room, the poltergeist looked to his best friend and moved to get out of her somewhat death grip. "Lyds, I think I'll just hang back here. I mean, I pretty worn out." He said as he emphasized his point turning into a worn piece of cloth briefly. The expression on his face was certainly tired, but it seemed to hide another emotion, but Lydia just nodded and decided not to press on it. "Okay, Beej, I guess I'll see you tomorrow after school." She said with a gentle tone to her voice as she then moved to give her best friend a tight hug, which seemed to linger a bit. BJ smiled at her and returned the hug in the same way as she gave it. "Yeah, sure, I'll see you and the mutt tomorrow. Then, we can all cause some hell or something here." He said with a soft and almost good natured tone. At least as good natured as Beetlejuice can get. Katie just stood there, watching the two with a small smile on her face, a smile that neither of them could take notice of at the moment. A thought went through her mind as she began to change her form back to the feral one. 'Seems like the ghost with the most has a lot going through his mind. Maybe just as much as the girl, herself, does.' She gave her body a shake before finishing her thought. 'Guess, the two still need more time to come to terms with their feelings. Either way, they'll end up happy.'

Lydia soon pulled away from the hug as she walked over to the wolfdog and watched as the poltergeist floated back out of the room. "Goodbye, BJ!" She said lastly as she sent a wave his way, as well as, a smile. "See ya, Lyds!" He responded back with a brief wave of his own, grinning. The canine got close to her friend as she said the ghost's name three times, which returned the both of them to her bedroom in the living world. The two stood in the midst of the silence, the wolfdog soon adjusting her ears a bit to see if a sound could be picked up to indicate if Lydia's parents had come home yet. It took about a few minutes, but finally there was the sound of the front door being unlocked and opened downstairs with footsteps following after. "Lyyyyyydiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Came the same sing song voice of Delia as she beckoned for her daughter. "Weeee'rrrrrrrrrrrrre hoooooooommmmmme!" She added a few seconds later. The canine looked up at her companion and saw that the kid's head was hung down and from what the wolfdog could see, Lydia's expression was slightly blank, but in the sense of deep thought more than anything. It was amazing to see that not even her mother's voice didn't shake her from her mental process, but a light nudge to her hand from the canid's cold nose did snap her back to reality.

The young girl shook her head as she lifted it and darted her eyes from side to side before looking down at the cause of her train of thought to be derailed. "You okay, kid?" Katie asked with a hint of concern as she set her ears low to the sides. Her friend took a moment to answer before she gave a nod and said. "Yeah, I'm okay, just got lost in thought." The canine simply smiled at her and whispered. "I understand." She turned her sight toward the door for a second and added as she glanced back at the young girl. "Maybe we should head down and see what mystery meal will be served tonight." Lydia simply laughed at that and nodded in agreement. "Lead the way, my companion." She said in a joking tone as she moved to open the door and let the canid out. Said canine, just went back to playing the role of the pet as she smiled and let out a bark in response to her friend. This caused the young girl to laugh more as she walked down the stairs with her 'pet' wolfdog. As soon as the two reached the bottom, they both were greeted by a sneezing Charles as he entered the house and got close to the extra furry friend. He tried to put on a smile as he looked to his daughter though, patting her gently on the head. "How was your day, pumpkin?" He asked, trying to hold back from sneezing.

His daughter beamed a smile at him in return as she giggled at the head patting, replying with. "It was amazing, father. I spent the day with Katie for the most part." She half lied because she thought better to not mention Beetlejuice as Mr. Beetleman. Charles just held his gentle smile and nodded. "Well, glad to hear that you did, dear." Delia soon came out from the kitchen due to going in there previously to set down some groceries and various art related items, grinning that same eerily cheery grin of hers as she looked to her 'doggy woggy'. "Ohhhh, there's my precious doggy woggy. Did you miss meeeeeee?" She asked in what was close to being baby talk as she squeezed the furry animal in a tight grip of a hug and then pinching the sides of her muzzle when asking the last part. Said canine, gave a groaning growl, which the red headed woman took as a positive answer. "Ohhhhhh, well, mommy, missed yoooouuuuu tooooooo." The mother cooed as she finally released the wolfdog and scratched a tad too hard behind her ears. Lydia held back from snickering at seeing the canid's expression from her mother's insane attention. The woman turned to her daughter and then said. "Lydia, dear, I could use a little help with dinner tonight." The young girl nodded and replied to her mother with. "Sure, mother, what can I do to help?" Delia moved to gently shove her daughter into the kitchen with her, the canine companion following behind the two with intrigue.

The woman turned on her heel as she faced her daughter and by extension, the 'doggy woggy'. "Lydia, is there something that you're not telling me? I can understand your father, but what about me?" Delia asked rather boldly as if using mother's intuition to pick up on what Katie already had. Okay, the woman clearly wasn't one to typically use mother's intuition, but through the years, it seemed like it finally was starting to become more active within the red head's mind. Lydia was a bit taken back by this sudden questioning from her mother, but simply put on a convincing smile as she answered. "Mother, what could I possibly have to tell you that I wouldn't tell father about? I mean, I really have nothing to hide." Again, the young girl half lied with this, but like any other time, she had good reason for it. Delia eyed her daughter for a moment or two almost like she was scanning her and trying to see if she was lying or not, which of course the young girl was, but the less her mother knew, the better. A few more seconds passed by before the woman accepted the answer she was given. "Okay, dear, then never mind that I asked." She then gently shoved her daughter away and added. "Now, run along while I get dinner started." Her daughter looked at her confused and said. "I thought you needed my help with dinner." Delia just smiled at her in return as if to tell her it was fine as she got the young girl out of the kitchen.

Shortly after Lydia was pushed out, Katie soon joined her in the hall, looking to her with a rather confused look herself. Her friend simply shrugged and whispered to the canine. "I'm just as confused as you are, but mother's just an odd one to explain." The wolfdog just nodded in return and barked softly, motioning her head toward the staircase. The young girl shook her head and said to her companion. "Let's take a short walk while mother works on another meal." Again, the canid barked, but in a more joyful tone as she followed Lydia toward the door and exited within moments with her. It was a few minutes before the two got far enough away for the wolfdog to speak again as she looked to Lydia with more concern than when the had returned from the Neitherworld. "You sure you're okay?" She asked as they walked. A sigh is what escaped the young girl as she rubbed at her forehead for a moment. "I'm really not so sure if I am, but it's rather complicated to even say for sure." Lydia replied as she stopped mid stride to knock a small pebble with her shoe, her gaze lingering at the dirt along the road too. "I wish I knew what to say or to be more specific, be able to say what I need to say." She added as she soon turned her gaze to her furry companion.

The canine gave a brief nod as she responded. "Well, kid, I can understand the feeling believe me. I mean, I was your age once. So, yeah, I know what you're going through. Hell, you could even say that I myself still go through this sort of thing from time to time, but if I've learned anything from feeling like that, it's this and it is to at least wait for the right moment where you are truly prepared to speak on what you need to say or even feel." Lydia seemed to smile at what her friend had said as she just nodded in agreement and turned to head back toward the house. The canine followed after her as she too held a smile of her own and the two remained silent for the tread back home because the silence held a slight mental message between the two newly made friends, as well as, a mutual understanding. Once the two had reached the house, they both went on in to dine on whatever meal Delia had made this time and as always, hoping that it was something that wouldn't taste like shit, as much as, it would look shitty. As soon as dinner came and went, Katie and Lydia were back in the young girl's bedroom, sitting for a bit and having a friendly discussion on what to do tomorrow in the Neitherworld before they each grew tired enough to go to bed as had become the usual custom. The wolfdog laid in thought for awhile before dozing off herself. 'I know tomorrow's bound to be fun, but I get the sense that we'll all be running into more chaos too while in the land of the dead.' She exhaled out a soft sigh before adding to her thoughts. 'I really hope that I'm wrong on this, but chances will be that I will surely be right.'


End file.
